Hua Hin Means

Seafood Paradise

There are seven golf courses in or around Hua Hin, giving you a chance to play golf on a different course each day of the week. But I was not into golf. There are numerous spas in Hua Hin, including the world famous Chiva Som, but I was not into spas either. While I enjoy sea sports, Hua Hin’s beaches and sea sports do not really compare that well with those in Phuket. And apart from a few exceptions, the shopping and sightseeing in Hua Hin is nothing to really shout about. But the food in Hua Hin is something else. I admit it was the food (more specifically the seafood) that brought my family and me there. Hua Hin has the advantage of a fishing pier, proximity to the nearby fishing grounds and fierce competition among its many seafood restaurants, resulting in generally cheaper, fresher and better tasting seafood.

After visiting Bangkok and the River Kwai area in the previous week, Hua Hin was our next destination. An express bus ride from Bangkok to Hua Hin would usually take about three hours but we chose the railway train even though it would take over four hours. This was because to get from our hotel to the bus station in the infamous Bangkok traffic would mean we had to wake up at an unearthly hour. On the other hand, the Hua Lampong Railway Station was a quick ride from the subway station near our hotel. Moreover, the Hua Hin Railway Station was also close to the Hua Hin Grand Hotel & Plaza where we were going to stay the next five days. As things turned out, we actually took more than five hours but fortunately enjoyed the train ride through the Thai countryside. Apparently it was the railway line that brought the hip crowd from Bangkok and elsewhere to Hua Hin in the 1920s after it was first constructed. King Rama VI also built Mareukatayawan Palace in Hua Hin around that time and it seems that the present King of Thailand resides in the palace there for most of the year. This has given Hua Hin a strong royal endorsement.

Hua Hin is well known as the oldest beach resort in Thailand. Before the railway line from Bangkok to Hua Hin was built, Hua Hin was just another quiet fishing village. According to the free Hua Hin Pocket Guide by Siambeing, Hua Hin means ‘Stone Head’ and it was originally known as Baan Samoe Rieng or Baan Laem Hin, meaning ‘Stony Point Village’ in Thai. To me though, Hua Hin means seafood paradise.

There are many seafood restaurants and other eating places in Hua Hin but we could only have so many meals a day (even if we were to go for smaller but more meals in a day like what the health books recommend). To reduce the eating places to a manageable list, I went through the food sections of many travel books in Singapore libraries, surfed the internet, read the free tourists guide available in Hua Hin and walked around looking for dining crowds. Not every place that we went to was special but here are what I consider to be the food highlights of Hua Hin.

Sang Thai Seafood Restaurant

(Fishing Pier, Hua Hin, Prachuabkhirikhan)

It has been said that if you wake up at about 7am in the morning and walk to the Hua Hin Pier, you can see fishing boats returning with their catch and people packing fish and other seafood for distribution to many parts of Thailand. Unfortunately, the pier was not really near our hotel and the earliest we ever got there was in the late morning. So we did not get to see any of the early morning activity. However, to make up for that, we saw the next best thing: live fish and other sea creatures on display at the Sang Thai Seafood Restaurant (which was very near the pier).

Like many popular seafood restaurants, Sang Thai Seafood Restaurant has a lot of live fish and other sea creatures displayed in tanks and other containers. These gave diners the opportunity of meeting their dinner before eating them. But unlike the friendly fat meaty quadruped bovine type creature that was the Dish of the Day in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, I did not think that those on display in Sang Thai and other seafood restaurants really wanted to be eaten. Therefore, I did not take advantage of the opportunity although many other diners did not seem to mind too much.

Sang Thai Seafood Restaurant could be considered the most popular seafood restaurant in Hua Hin if you go by the numerous tables around and the pictures of what appeared to be famous Thai personalities and members of the Thai royal family. It was where we had our first and also our last meal in Hua Hin. In between, we had dinner there two nights in a row. Therefore, it was clearly our favourite restaurant in Hua Hin. Over the course of the various meals, we tried their fried crab rice, stir-fired mixed vegetables, steamed prawns, deep fried squid in batter, tom yam prawns, stir-fried squid with basil, oyster omelette and steamed crabs. They were generally inexpensive and very good, ie very fresh and delicious.

Ketsarin Seafood Restaurant

(17/1 Naresdamri Road, Hua Hin)

Ketsarin Seafood Restaurant is located on the waterfront on Naresdamri Road. Like most of the restaurants on the waterfront, it is narrow and built on a long deck that goes over the water, partly sheltered and partly not. This gives patrons the option of dining under the stars at night. On both the occasions we were there, we only ate lunch and so missed seeing the celestial bodies there. What first caught my attention was actually a sign outside that said it was the restaurant on the longest pier and ‘Best of the Best for Food’. After going halfway into the restaurant, you can find a laminated copy of a restaurant review published in The Nation by Thai celebrity chef and television personality M L Sirichalerm Svasti (more commonly known as McDang) entitled ‘Hua Hin’s Seaside Delights’. He awarded Ketsarin Seafood Restaurant (calling it Katesiri, Ketsiri or Ketsirin at different points in his review) five stars for ‘Taste’ and another five for the ‘Quality of raw materials’. I agree with his ratings.

On the two separate occasions we were there, we tried several items on their menu. These included their recommended fish cakes (very good), fried crab rice (one of the best in Hua Hin) deep fried squid (just the right balance of soft tasty squid and crunchy crust), steamed prawns (good value for the price) and what my youngest son, Michael, called ‘high class’ mussels, ie mussels cooked in white wine.

The dishes were simply cooked but basically fresh and tasty and certainly very good value for money. According to McDang, there is some talk of demolishing the entire row of buildings where Ketsarin Seafood Restaurant is located. Therefore, eat there while you still have the chance. It is open daily from 11:19 am to 10:19 pm though I cannot quite figure out why they chose the odd timing.

Raan Pa Juea

(outside Hua Hin Hilton Hotel)

Near the Hua Hin Hilton Hotel, on the corner of a Soi, there is a famous mango and sticky rice stall. McDang said that the elderly lady at the stall has been there ever since he can remember and that has been over 50 years. We walked by the stall almost every day we were in Hua Hin and more than once on some days. Almost without fail on each occasion, there would be people, both tourists and locals, either waiting to buy the Thai dessert or sitting next to the stall eating. We joined them on a few occasions and were never disappointed. The mango was fragrant and sweet and the sticky rice was the perfect companion.

Meekaruna Seafood

(26/1 Naresdamri Road, Hua Hin)

According to the sixth edition of Frommer’s Thailand, Meekaruna is a small family-run seafood restaurant with ‘less flashing lights and no carnival barker out front to drag you in’. I had the fried crab rice there for one lunch and it was very good fried rice with fairly decent bits of crab meat. Their baby clams fried in chili sauce and fried crab cakes were also recommended but I did not try them, needing to conserve space for the gelato I was going to have for dessert.

Night Market

(Dechanuchit Road)

Towards the north of the town centre, on two blocks of Dechanuchit Road, is Hua Hin’s famous night market. Compared to the night markets in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, it is a much smaller affair but just right for Hua Hin’s laid back atmosphere. There are many food stalls amidst the usual clothing, souvenir and VCD stalls and three stood out as special. One was a Phad Thai stall with the cook wearing what looked like a gold Rolex watch and the second was a stall selling coconut ice cream. The third was a banana pancake stall also selling pancakes in egg, Milo, coffee, Ovaltine, raisin, strawberry, cherry, pineapple and orange versions. All three stalls had what seemed like perpetual crowds waiting for their orders to be taken or prepared and naturally we tried all three and did not have any regrets.

Coffee Beach Café

(opposite Ketsarin Seafood Restaurant, Naresdamri Road)

Almost directly opposite Ketsarin Seafood Restaurant is the Coffee Beach Café. Apart from the usual café fare, the quaint little cafe sells very good gelato. In fact, there are quite a lot of places selling the low fat Italian ice cream in Hua Hin but this one is really the best. They give you the largest helping and best gelato for the price you pay.

Richard Tan Ming Kirk

Shook Lin & Bok

© Richard Tan Ming Kirk